Halloween 2011
by Kaeru Shisho
Summary: Heero and Duo get waylaid by a haunted house on their way to a party.


Halloween 2011

Summary: Heero and Duo get waylaid by a haunted house on their way to a party.

Disclaimer: Just borrowing the Gundam Wing boys for a few pages. Rated for language and shonen-ai.

A/N: Thanks to Waterlily for the creative ideas ans edits

* * *

><p>"I like the look of the big place at the top of the hill."<p>

"Heero, so do I, but the drive winds _away_ to get up there, and _this_ is the address Quat gave me."

The paper crackled in his pocket as Duo pulled it out, checked the numbers one more time, and then shoved it to the side next to his car keys.

_Heero._ He liked just saying his name, rolling it around on his tongue and wishing he could use his tongue to do amazing things to his friend. But then there was the "just friends" status of their relationship he hadn't the courage to cross yet. He'd been counting on this party of Quatre's to help bridge the abyss.

Heero cleared his throat then pointed out the obvious. "I don't see any other cars parked here."

"We are a tad early." Duo had padded the schedule to allow time for Heero to invite him into his apartment, but that hadn't happened. He'd been all business, ready to go, hot out the door. Hot.

When he glanced over at his friend to rate his level on the Duo hot-guy meter, he caught sight of him raking his fingers through his bangs and staring longingly, but not at him. No. His eyes gazed past the dark, ill-kempt walkway leading to the tottering Victorian house to the bright, warm glow emanating from the hill-top estate.

"It's more Winner-like than this place." Heero doggedly stuck to his opinion.

"Yeah, well, this screams Halloween party and you know Quat's big on atmosphere." He said this based on faith and trust in Quatre, but deep down inside he had to agree the place looked deserted.

"Hn."

Duo punched his friend's arm, happy to use any excuse to touch him. "C'mon," he beckoned and led the way to the front porch, "this'll be fun."

Running the gauntlet to the door _was_ actually fun! He hopped a fallen tree limb and then stepped around a hole big enough, he estimated, to trap any neighborhood children brave enough to attempt Trick-or-Treating here. "Couple bomb blasts and some gunfire and this would be right out of one of my nightmares, eh 'Ro?"

"Mine, too. That's your definition of fun?" Heero's frown deepened.

Not a definition, no, but Duo wasn't sure how he'd react to hearing about some of his more fanciful seduction scenarios, featuring the two of them, of course. "Work with me here," is what he said.

To his dismay, it didn't seem like Heero was going to do that; his friend must have been off duty this night.

"The light's not on," Heero commented.

"Just part of the…mood." Duo searched for the right word. He wanted to hang onto the possibility that he'd open the door to party central, but the nearer they got to the door, the more he felt that the whole setup wasn't right, and Heero's attitude wasn't helping.

Obviously, he'd disappointed Heero already. And here it had taken all his considerable bravery to suggest Heero accompany him to Quatre and Trowa's party! He'd really been counting on it to bring them closer, but at this rate the only thing he felt closer to was a broken bone and the emergency room. He fingered his phone at the bottom of his pocket, thinking about giving Quat a call, but remembering that his battery was low on charge gave him a good excuse not to. _Save it for desperation time_.

_Desperation? Hell no. He was Shinigami, master of death! Heh, heh._

"Did you say something?" Heero asked him.

Did he? "I don't think so."

Look on the bright side, he told himself, he had Heero alone at last and in the dark. With a little creativity, they could have an adventure together investigating a possible haunted house and build on that to something better.

While he was thinking about a way to present that idea, Heero was seriously trying to disprove that the place was a party scene.

"This can't be right, Duo. Winner could have installed one of those flickering bulbs and still have retained all the requisite atmosphere, while providing guests a reasonably safe entrance-."

Logic? For the love of- "Ah!"

He felt a sharp jerk as Heero grabbed his elbow in time to prevent him from pitching headlong onto the rotting porch floor. Duo yanked his ankle from the splintering wood and Heero smiled into his anxious face while cradling his warm body. Had Duo been less burdened by his own insecurities, he might have accepted this for what it was: Opportunity! Instead, he felt embarrassed for being a klutz.

Their eyes nearly met as Duo looked up in time to catch a shadowy shape flutter against the moonlit sky. Duo stopped himself from shuddering at the sight of the bat and stifled a curse. "Don't say a thing," he warned.

"Can't do that," Heero said with what Duo recognized as his "I am superior" smirk. "You should be more careful," he chastised.

"You think so?" Duo poured his ironic soul into that comment.

And then Heero planted a wet kiss on his nose.

Well, more of a lick than a kiss.

_What the fuck?_ Duo didn't know what to make of it.

He waited to see if a real kiss might materialize next, but Heero just stared at him, then said, "I'm having fun now," Heero said.

Wouldn't you know Heero would enjoy his run of bad luck and mock him? Although, he possibly wasn't aware that he was teasing him. Heero held his passions in check – his ones relating to affection, not his right-the-wrongs-of-the-world ones- so Duo was never positive what motivated his friend.

"Yeah, well… good for you," Duo grumbled.

He did know that he should have enjoyed being cradled in Heero's arms, but the aching of his ankle and the fear of flying bats—blood-sucking vermin- sucked the romance clean away. Duo felt a little squeeze around his shoulders and figured it was Heero's way of letting him know he was about to drop him.

Heero asked him, "Can you stand?"

"Maybe," was his cautious answer.

The evening was shaping into a typical Maxwell defeat in the seduction department. His earlier anticipation for a good time dried up and blew away with the crispy leaves as he got his feet under him and limped up to the massive door.

He stood and stared as if willing it to open on its own. "This is it then."

He felt Heero slide silently to his side, and heard the sigh first before Heero cast his judgment. "What a dreary place."

Duo gave him a narrow, sidewise glance. "No shit. And, no, in case you thought I was an idiot, I do not still think that this is a crappy fright-night themed Winner Halloween party. I was about to suggest we investigate the haunted house possibilities of the place, but if you'd rather I call Quat and get the directions-"

"No, that's all right."

Now there's enthusiasm, Duo thought and let out a sigh heavy with the weight of disillusionment. "Let's get this over with."

"It sounds less fun put that way."

Was that a smile Heero was hiding, Duo wondered? But when he twisted around to verify, Duo could only see Heero's face lost in the shadows. He appeared to have taken a sudden interest in the cobwebbed window to their right.

Duo growled as he reached for the door handle and gave it a twist. With a creaky-sticky-hinge sound, the door swung inwards, revealing a gaping void.

"I have my doubts that anyone is inside," Heero said.

Duo bet he was grinning as well. Yeah, he had his doubts, too—he doubted his doubts even- but they'd come this far. Might as well look around. It was completely dark, though.

"Ssspo-oky," Heero said in a creepy hiss that made Duo's heart skip a beat.

When he turned to punch him for that, Duo found Heero was too far away and was glaring intensely, while wiping the grime off a window with one finger.

"This is ridiculous," he muttered and stepped over the doorsill. Raising his voice, Duo announced to the inhabitants, if any, "Calling all ghosts, varmints, and transients! I'm coming in—eh ?"

He's only taken a few steps inside and to the left, when he felt the flooring give away. He teeter-tottered a moment, but the floor vanished beneath his feet and he rocketed down,

down,

down.

A set of loose floor boards making up the trap door slammed back into place.

Duo pitched feet first into darkness with just enough time to register "free fall" before hitting the ground hard, jarring his bones, and rolling a few feet. Pain lanced up from his now twice-injured ankle. "Ugh!"

He coughed out a lungful of dust. "Where the fuck am I?"

The ground beneath him was packed earth with a scattering of loose rocks and straw. What he could detect. It was completely dark.

"'Ro? You there?"

Duo hadn't expected him to be there. He hadn't heard his fall; in fact, he couldn't hear much of anything. His own voice sounded muffled, as if the smothering gloom were dampening the sound. "Can you hear me?"

The drip, drip, drip of a leaking pipe answered back.

"Great." He wriggled his injured ankle as a test—it hurt—and decided against standing for a while longer. He would get the lay of the land from a seated position, from which he couldn't fall again. Thinking that he might climb back out the way he got in, especially if he could get Heero to lend a hand, Duo strained to look over the space above him for the way out. "For the love of… I can't make out the hole I dropped through!" That and he had lost his bearings after the unexpected tumble and wasn't positive where the opening ought to be.

Then he felt his phone give a cranky "power low" buzz.

"Aw, fuck it all." He kicked at a rock with his good foot, sending it torpedoing into the dark and expecting it to hit a wood upright or stone wall to give him some idea of the size of the space he'd plunged into. It hit with a dull, soft thud.

"Eeek!" squawked a tiny critter, followed by the skittering of small feet and more squeaks and angry-sounding squeals.

"Ah, Geez…" Not only was Duo not fond of bats, he wasn't keen on being eaten alive by rats either. He moved fast, getting to his feet, balancing on one leg and finding his cell phone. He wanted one peek around, find the hole he fell through, and that was it. He had battery enough for that, he guessed.

Message waiting. Yuy. "Nice to know you noticed I was missing." If he didn't find what he was looking for, he'd call Heero back.

Using cell phone glow to light the area, gave him a limited look around. What he saw made his gut tighten:

A scruffy-looking cat slunk out of the circle of light, merging with the shadows—the likely source of mutant kittens.

Dust carpeted the ground in moldy lumps, and became trapped in the spider webs like fuzzy drapery.

The signs of tiny vermin feet and tail lines in the dust were everywhere.

"What's that?"

Hazy shapes just at the edge of illumination drew him a hop and a step closer.

"Looks like room dividers. Little rooms."

_CELLS! Jail cells._

Time to give Heero and ring on the phone, he decided. His eyes were riveted on the strange straps hanging from the cell walls, so he didn't see the leather and steel trap that caught his foot.

"Ahhh!" He tripped and fell flat out onto the rocky ground, kicking his foot to free it and focusing the dimming light onto his foot. Dark leather loops and dull metal fastenings ringed his ankle.

He booted free then wheeled about, shining the light onto the hangings to see more draped leather bindings and long evil-looking whips dangling from thick hooks.

A S&M romp had not been part of the party plan. "My God-!" he blurted out and then was pitched back into darkness as his battery fizzled, drained to zero, and died.

"Argh! Heero? Nooooo!"

(o)

Heero had been peering into the grimy window attempting to make out the interior, when Duo's voice cut off , followed by what sounded like a door slamming shut, and a muffled thump coming from someplace in the distance.

"Duo? Where did you go? Are you inside?"

Hanging ajar and swinging fractionally, the door enticed him to cross the threshold; he felt as if it were summoning him inside, but he didn't enter. The dim light from his cell phone barely glowed past the open door, showing next to nothing beyond dust motes hanging in the air.

"Duo?"

There was no answer. He stepped one foot inside and called again. "Duo, where are you?"

He continued to look around, noticing dust settling in place, but his light was weak. Duo had been standing there—and then he was gone. Well, that was odd, he thought, even for Duo, to disappear so suddenly—unless he was pulling some kind of a practical joke. He wouldn't put that past him—when he'd been fifteen years old.

"Duo, come out. This isn't a very funny joke."

He waited but there was no sound.

Heero considered conducting a serious hunt, but was it worth the risk of life and limb only to discover Duo lurking in the shadows laughing his ass off? He pulled out his cell phone and autodialed Duo. His call went directly to voicemail, so he left a message. "Call me immediately."

To be sure he got the message, he texted, "call me," seven times.

He pondered the situation while staring at his cell phone, willing it to ring. On sober reflection, Duo was grown up and always reliable, no longer a teenage terrorist. He might horse around, but he wasn't a prankster and not mean-spirited. He was responsible and … damned sexy.

He'd looked particularly attractive tonight.

Back to the problem. No, this was no joke. After an irritating one-minute wait in the gloom, he autodialed Trowa.

"Yo."

Heero heard the sounds of music and partying in the background, proof that they hadn't found the correct location. "I lost Duo."

"I can usually locate him by the noise he makes."

Funny. "He's not making any sound."

"I thought you were coming together."

"We were, up until two minutes ago. Where are you?"

"At the party."

Sigh. He'd kill Trowa after he found Duo. "Where specifically is _that_?"

"The mammoth house on the hill. Can't miss it. Where are _you_?"

"Hold on." Heero turned and walked away from the house, picking his way carefully until he could see the roadway leading up to the hill house. "I'm at the place at the bottom of the hill. Derelict building. We were at the door about to go inside, he opened it, and I thought he went inside, but there's no sign that he did. When I turned my back, he just disappeared."

"Only Duo…" Trowa's voice trailed off and Heero could hear him shouting to someone. He guessed Quatre. Then he came back online. "Have you tried looking for him?"

Kill Trowa. "I _would_ if I had a flashlight. I came prepared for a Halloween party, not a search party. It's damned dark out here. And before you ask, I tried calling him , but he didn't answer." That led to him thinking of worse things. "He could be hurt."

"Stay where you are. I'll be there in five minutes or less."

"Fine." Heero could do that.

But he didn't. He tramped around front of the building, grumbling at the lack of clues, the lack of light, and the lack of Duo. He was mystified by Duo's odd behavior and not a little concerned, becoming more so as the minutes ticked by. He tried calling again and reached the same dead end. He didn't bother leaving another message.

He heard the car's motor before he spotted the pastel blue Austin Healy rolling down the driveway. It came to a stop at the gate and out popped Quatre from the driver's seat. Trowa carefully unfolded his longer legs, before exiting out the other side.

"Hey." Trowa had a rope slung over a shoulder, which Heero could see in the light of the bobbing flash lights Quatre carried. He hoped they wouldn't need the rope to haul Duo out.

"Oh, Heero, I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. I forgot that neither you nor Duo had ever been up at Hill House. It's my sister's place, actually, but she lets me use it—"

"Quatre," Heero interrupted his prattling. "Duo's been missing for nearly ten minutes. I've determined that he did not go far past the front door. Let's get on with this."

Quatre waved his arm as if he could simply wipe away their troubles, sending light beams flickering over dead tree branches and piles of leaves. Trowa took away the one flashlight before it was dropped.

"Don't worry," Quatre told them, "Duo must have stumbled into that dilapidated old carriage house and taken a tumble through a hole in the floor."

"… or something," Trowa added, allowing for any of hundreds of other possibilities.

"Tumbled-? He could be injured then!" Heero shouted to Quatre's retreating back. That was when he noticed Quatre had sprouted wings. When combined with the silly fuzzy- antennae hat, it made some sense: he was a moth. "Just give me that flashlight and I'll find him."

"I've got it." Trowa kept his out of Heero's reach and Quatre was far ahead, traveling a safe path he could see.

"We'll get him out." Trowa, it seemed to Heero, was trying to sound reassuring. He also jingled when he passed.

Heero let out an exasperated snort and stomped behind.

Spurs tinkled and rattled as Trowa chose the path of least resistance to the front door, where there was enough light for Heero to see that the lanky man sported a fringed leather coat and cowboy hat.

They were both in _costume_ for their party.

Duo hadn't mentioned it being a costume party. Heero wasn't sure if he would have wanted to go, had he known. Duo had kept that part a secret, not wanting to risk his rejection? Possible. Implying he had wanted him to accompany him a lot? Another possibility.

Conclusion: going together had been important to Duo.

_So where was he?_

Heero was worried now. "He'd better be okay."

Trowa chuckled. "He's tough."

Heero shook his head. "I don't understand what happened." The entire evening up to this point had been a baffling turn of events. "He must have been very distracted to have gone here and not followed directions to the house."

Trowa's voice came through loud and clear. "Take that thought and follow it to its most likely end, Yuy."

Heero rolled Trowa's words around in his head. _Duo and I arrived together; he picked me up in his car, so it was just the two of us involved here. So it was my fault? How could I have disrupted his judgment that way?_

He added up the shy smiles, the hesitant touches, the exhilarating feeling that something was happening between them that he couldn't put a finger on, and smiled a little bit with what he'd concluded.

The nose-lick move hadn't been a good idea, and he regretted it now. He knew Duo loved dogs and just thought he'd get it- puppy love? But he'd… not. He needed to explain, possibly tell him directly, that he really, really liked him.

Meanwhile, Quatre had pushed open the door, and was currently flashing his light inside and looking around. "Let's see if we can find out where he went." He tapped on the floor boards until his shoe hit a live one and the board flipped up. "Oh my! I think this is the problem. This is a trap door for loading hay. If he stepped on this, he might have fallen into the stalls below."

Quatre led the way back out and around to the back of the building, chattering about the history of the structure. "The house is quite old. Before cars, fancy horse-drawn carriages delivered people to the hilltop. If the drivers waited to take them back, the animals and transports were stored here. See? There are these large doors and a sloping driveway going down and in. The front part was a small room for the caretaker to stay. I wanted to tear it all down but my sister loves the old look of it and she's just dying to restore it."

Trowa tugged at one of doors and Heero another, but they didn't budge.

The three of them put their weight into the job and pulled and pushed until the ancient rust gave way and the doors slid sideways. A yawning opening revealed a cavernous room veiled in cobwebs. Trowa scanned the place, his light skimming over a couple horse stalls and then Duo, on one leg, rushed them at a furious limping hop.

"'Bout time!" he shouted.

"Duo!" Quatre called out, stepping aside as Heero whipped around him and rushed past.

Heero bounded into Duo's path and wrapped a supportive arm around his shoulders. Out of the corner of his eye, Heero watched the sweep of flash light exposing the old carriage room as Trowa trailed his boyfriend into the murky space. "Are you all right-?"

"There's a fuckin' torture chamber down there! I got trapped in some kind ova wicked harness meant to-!"

He figured that Trowa must have spied something of interest, because he kicked a few rocks out of his path, and then picked up a cluster of leather straps. "Meant to be worn by a horse?" Trowa interrupted. "This looks like a bridle. See the bit goes in the mouth-."

"Put a sock in it," Heero snapped at him.

Trowa muttered something about "moths being drawn to light" and flashed his on and off like a strobe. Quatre smothered a laugh and tugged on the cowboy's arm, leading him away.

Heero brushed a few stray bits of straw from Duo's bangs and turned his attention full onto him, eyes aglow.

"Whatever is was, it tripped me and there were hundreds of starving rats eager to get a taste of Maxwell, I can tell you."

"Sounds…unsettling," Heero said. He liked the way Duo's weight leaned into him and how he trusted him to keep him upright as they shuffled together up the steep dirt drive and back outdoors.

"It was like something out of a horror movie, I tell ya!"

"I'm sorry you got caught in that abandoned…dangerous… place, Duo," Quatre called back over a shoulder, looking a little moth-eaten with his antennae now set at a rakish angle on his head and his hair mussed. "It's really an old carriage house. As I was telling Heero, I've advised my sister to tear it down dozens of times, but will she listen-?"

"Car-riage house?" Duo's voice broke. "There are these cells with hooks and straps and whips. Really evil-looking whips!"

"They are just buggy whips," Quatre said.

Trowa paused to straighten the antennae. "I don't think Duo would have encountered horse paraphernalia on L2, Quatre. It reminds me of a crime scene, though, so I can see Duo's point."

"Oh!" Quatre may have had more to say, but Trowa kissed him and that was that for a while.

"Yeah, crime scene. Like that! I could hardly see a thing, but what I could see… I mean… whips, Heero, _whips_!"

Heero thought Duo was on the verge of slight hysteria. He considered soundly slapping his friend across the face, but, taking his cue from Trowa, he thought of a far more enjoyable wakeup call. Take it one step beyond the doggy slobber he'd stunned Duo with earlier and then study the effect that had. He tightened his one-arm grip a little, steadied Duo's jaw with his free hand, and leaned very, very close until his lips touched Duo's lower lip.

"It was-!" Duo's mouth snapped shut and his eyes grew wide as saucers.

_So far so good._ He'd silenced him with a kiss.

Duo's lips softened to malleable, he moved gently, and when a tip of tongue swirled across his lips, his heart pounded harder. One peek assured him that Duo's eyes had closed. Duo's reactions were very encouraging, so he remained where he was doing what he was doing awhile longer.

Something whizzed over his head, grazing the tips of his hair. It might have been a bat. Or a rock tossed by a bothersome friend.

A voice, Trowa's, dry as toast, cut the romantic mood. "You know, there's a party in process elsewhere."

And then Duo's eyelashes brushed his cheek, tickling. When he pulled back, Duo smiled and rocked back onto his good foot.

"What do you want to do?" Heero asked, sounding a little breathy.

"Um…?"

Duo appeared dazed, so Heero offered to carry him the rest of the way to the car.

Duo said no, but let him anyway. "As if it's worth fighting over, heh, heh."

"Oh, carry him, sure. The path _is_ treacherous," Trowa said, startling Heero with his close proximity, "if you think you need an excuse."

Heero adjusted the weight and tightened his grip, remembering how he was going to kill Trowa and why.

"Maybe we should call it a night?" Duo muttered.

Heero anticipated the start of an interesting night, taking Duo home, tending to his injuries, which would require the removal of his clothes, making him comfortable, possibly needing to stay over to watch over him-

Quatre's voice roused him from his pleasant planning. "Oh, please, don't let that," he waved at the derelict building as if it were a distant memory, "spoil the evening for you, Duo. Heero can drive you to the house to get an ankle wrap, and then you both can join the party. You must be hungry!"

"Well…" Duo seemed to think it over. "I haven't had anything to eat since breakfast."

"You could pretend you're an accident victim," Trowa put in, "for your costume."

Wanting to be a part of whatever plans Quatre and Trowa might come up with for Duo, Heero embellished with his own idea. "I can wrap enough of you in tape that you'll look like a peeling mummy."

"A mummy? I didn't think you'd come with me, if I'd said you had to wear a costume."

Heero shrugged, "Probably a good call."

"Yuy's not known for his imaginative infiltration," Trowa quipped.

"Is that the problem, Heero?" Quatre asked. "No costume?"

Not really.

"I have an Arab dancer costume you could wear, if you'd like?" Quatre offered. "It's a little sheer-"

"-What little there is of it." Trowa's leer implied he'd seen it in action at some time.

Heero could tell from the look in Duo's eyes that he'd like him to wear it very much. And since he liked Duo very much and wanted to impress him and get a chance to kiss him again, he said, "All right."

There would be a chance to put his other plans into action.

Which was how Heero discovered how much he liked Halloween as long as he could celebrate with Duo Maxwell.

The End.

* * *

><p><strong>(~.~)... H A P P Y... H A L L O W E E N !... (^w^)<strong>


End file.
